


No Heroes Allowed

by artem_ace



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: AU, Fluff, M/M, OOC, af, baseball AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 08:45:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3644022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artem_ace/pseuds/artem_ace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At ten years old, Nico di Angelo swears off baseball forever. However, at 15 (now a sophomore in highschool), he is driven to tryout for the team by his baseball obsessed father and ends up meeting some pretty cool people, including the hot, blond, varsity Captain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

May 17th, 2001 

  
Ten year old Nico di Angelo stood at home plate awaiting the third and final pitch. Already missing two balls and at the end of the final inning, the victory of either team lay on his small shoulders. The score is 8-9 and if he could just hit the ball far enough so that Todd could make it to home base, they could at least end the season with a tie.

The pitcher of the opposing team, an eleven year old who was way too tall to logically be placed with other fifth graders, smirked at him maniacally. Nico had only managed to successfully hit 2 pitches during the entire game and one if those was caught mid-air, resulting in an out.

He held the too heavy bat at an awkward angle, and stood with his feet shoulder width apart, determined not to fail. The pitcher winds up and Nico tightened his grip on the bat. His knuckles became white as he glared at the older boy.

The ball was released and Nico watched as the white circle got larger and larger as it raced toward home plate. At the last minute he screwed his eyes shut and swung with all his might.

A sickening  _crack_  echoed throughout the field. Nico watched in awe at the sight of the ball soaring up, up, and- right into the mitt of the second baseman. Behind him, he heard his teams collective groan and sees the glare Todd sent him as he walked to the dugout made Nico want to throw up.

He stood there, his feet glued to the dusty red sand as the other team rushes to their dugout, screaming in celebration. The guy who caught his ball clapped his shoulder as he ran past. “Sorry dude. Better luck next year, yeah?”

Nico stared at the red dust that had accumulated on his old cleats. Only once the field was clear, did he finally look up. His coach was bending down to look at him, offering a water bottle.

"It’s fine, kiddo, with a little more practice, you can learn to do better for next season! We’ll get our revenge next year, what do you say?"

Nico took the bottle and turned his back on the man. “I quit,” he whispered. He walked away. Away from the coach, away from the team, away from the field.

He vaguely heard his coach attempting to call after him, but Nico’s made his decision.

‘ _I’m not going back,’_ he thought to himself. ‘ _I’m never playing baseball again.’_

——

Hades didn’t take it well and Nico didn’t expect him to. After playing professional baseball for five years and suffering a career damaging injury, his dad had retired and started a family. From a young age, he encouraged Nico and his older sister Bianca to play. Bianca shared her father’s passion for the sport.

Nico, however, did not.

With much argument and the prompting of Persephone, Nico’s fairly recent step-mother, Hades finally relents, allowing Nico to pursue whatever he chose.

For the next four years, Nico ran track. And for the next four years, Nico was happy.

—

March 12, 2006

Nico shades his eyes against the sun as he steps onto the field. To his left is the sign up table. A line of freshman and sophomores stand, some with their parents, waiting to receive a number. He touches the piece of paper taped to his chest. It reads  **Number 18: Nico di Angelo.**

To his right stand the coach. Accompanying him are two guys, co-captains of the varsity team, he assumes. They’re all looking at a clipboard held in the coach’s right hand. His name is Vincent, Bianca had told him. Vincent Harold. To be called Coach Harold or nothing at all.

The man is shorter than Nico expected, but just as scary. A short scruff of stubble graces his face, and a cap is on his head, keeping the sun off of his red face. He surveys the field as the boys continue reading his clipboard. Nico’s heart skips a beat when the coach’s eyes meet his own. He quickly turns his head.

In front of him are the other hopefuls, 17 so far and more joining. Tryouts haven’t started yet and the other boys are unsure what to do with themselves. Some are chatting, some are taking practice swings, and others are stretching. Nico figures loosening up is a good idea and joins a group of guys to stretch.

One of them, a slim energetic boy with pointy ears greets him when walks up. He stands from his position of weird floor stretches and hold his hand out. Nico goes to shake it, but things turn a bit awkward when the guy balls his fist up, in an obvious try for a fist bump and Nico is left holding his closed hand.

"Shit, sorry," Nico says cringing. The other boy laughs.

"It’s cool man, happens all the time," the curly haired boy chuckles. Nico doubts this, but plays along anyway. "Leo Valdez at your service," the boy, Leo, introduces.

"My name’s Nico," he says.

Leo reads the paper on his chest. “Di Angelo?” He asks. “Any relation to the one an only Bianca di Angelo?”

Nico hesitates, trying to gauge whether confirming this would have a positive or negative outcome. “Yeah, she’s my sister. Do you know her?”

Leo shrugs. “Not personally but most people know who she is. Jason,” he nods to one of the guys standing by the coach, “- was friends with her before she left.”

The assumed captain is currently bandaging up one of the freshmen who, apparently, had skinned his knee trying to perform a slide incorrectly. He’s cute, very cute, and has well toned arms and short hair without a strand out of place. Nico moves a strand of hair out of his own face. Not being one for routine haircuts, he had pulled the hair he could into a messy ponytail, and bobby pinned the rest out of his face.

The injured boy is laughing now. It must be something Jason said, as the blond smiles and ruffles his hair. There’s a small scar on the right side of his mouth, creating a white line just above his lip. Leo nudges him and Nico stops his staring.

"You know the co-captain?"

"Captain, actually. Ethan offered to be captain of JV instead of co-ing with Jason on varsity."

Ethan, the other boy Nico had seen with the coach, is tossing a ball back in forth with another player. He’s wearing a baseball cap that casts a dark shadow over his face. Nico now notices an eye patch covering his left eye, a detail that had previously been obscured by the shading of the hat. He nods at him and Leo, and Nico turns away, embarrassed to have been caught.

Leo makes a face at the older boy. “What a nerd,” he says, but his voice holds no hostility. “Anyway, yeah I know Jason, he’s my neighbor. He convinced me to try out for the team, despite my complete lack of any athletic skill and the fact that I’m a junior who hasn’t played baseball, well ever.”

Leo sits again to stretch and Nico is surprised at how flexible the boy is. He follows Leo’s lead and sits by him, reaching forward to his toes. “He’s a really cool guy. I think you’ll like him.”

As if on cue, Jason is jogging toward them, holding a bottle of sunscreen. “Sup, dude?” He greets, falling beside them. He offers the bottle to Nico. “Who’s your friend?” He asks Leo.

"This is Nico," Leo says as Nico opens the sunscreen. "I’ve replaced you with his gorgeous ass." Leo winks at him and the red on Nico’s face has nothing to do with the sun.

Jason rolls his eyes. “Yeah I’m sure.” He holds a fist out to Nico (which he doesn’t grab this time thank god) and Nico recuperates with his own. “Nice to meet you, Nico.” He flashes a bright white smile. “Hope to see you around.” Nico’s heart is doing weird things as a result of the smile Jason had just given him, so he just nods.

At that moment, a whistle blows, and Ethan is notifying them that it’s time to begin tryouts. Jason leaves with an apologetic smile and stands to join Ethan in gathering the rest of the guys.

Jason leads in group stretching, and if Nico is staring at his ass the whole time, well, that’s nobody’s business but his own. Maybe baseball isn’t so bad after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tryouts continue

Once they’ve completed their stretches, a shrill whistle blow calls the group’s attention to the coach. He stands with his hands on his hips and has to shout to be heard by all 70+ people. **  
**

“Okay, boys, glad you could make it to the first day of tryouts!” Everyone applauds. “I’m Coach Harold and you will address me as such. Referring to me by anything other than my name, or simply ‘Coach’ will result in enough laps to make you get another glimpse of your breakfast. Isn’t that right, Mr. Nakamura?”

Beside him Ethan scowls. The coach continues, relaying information about the 3 different teams (Freshman, Junior Varsity, and Varsity) and how tryouts are going to work. Having already been briefed by both Bianca and his father, Nico tunes out a bit, instead focusing on the boy he met earlier.

As the captain, Jason carries himself with a certain air of pride and leadership that one would expect. His arms are crossed, giving Nico a pretty great view of his biceps. He looks at the coach attentively, which is more than can be said about Nico himself, or Leo who is busy making faces at Ethan.

Nico’s brought back to earth when Jason begins speaking.

“Okay guys, first we’re going for a little jog around the field. I’ll be setting the pace so just follow me and you’ll be golden. Ethan will be taking up the rear to keep us all together. As long as you can stay in front of him, you’ll move into the next round of tryouts.”

After making sure everyone understood what was expected of them, and a quick water break, Jason starts jogging. When he passes Leo, he whispers something in his ear, causing the other boy to blush and nod.  _‘What’s going on there’_ , Nico wonders silently. Jason laughs and continues past the rest of the group.

Everyone fills in behind him. By the time they’re halfway around the field, some begin to fall back. Nico is grateful for the training he’s received in track as he keeps a steady pace. Those around him are breathing heavily, but Nico hasn’t even begun to feel winded. He accelerates his pace to catch up with Jason, then falls into step beside him.

“Hey,” Jason says. He looks completely at ease.

“Hi,” Nico replies.

They start a second lap. Nico looks back to see that nobody has fallen behind yet, though some are having some trouble. He tries to start a conversation.

“So you and Leo… are you guys, like, a  _thing_?” Nico’s face is pink, but he can shrug it off as effects from the run.

Apparently, Jason does as well, because when he speaks again, his words are less smooth than before. “Me and Leo?” he chuckles. “Nah, we’re just friends. Besides, he has the biggest crush on Ethan if you haven’t noticed.”

_Does he?_

He glances back to where Leo jogs next to Ethan, at the tail end of the procession. He seems to have no trouble keeping pace (like many of the others around him who are on the verge of falling behind), and is enjoying the conversation with Ethan. There’s no reason for Leo to be that far behind when he is obviously comfortable with the pace, except to be with the older boy. _How did Nico not see it before?_

Jason smiles at his realization. “Why do you ask?”

“Just curious,” Nico replies, ducking his head. He slows his pace down a bit, falling closer to the middle of the group, done with conversation for now.

—

Leo plops down next to him, nearly crushing a half empty water bottle. Nico is still performing his cool down process to transition properly. The curly-haired boy grabs the water bottle and chugs what’s left.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad,” he says. His curls are dampened from the sweat and there’s a light flush to his cheeks, but he seems to be enjoying himself.

“Ethan’s really cool,” Leo says, smiling at his water bottle. Nico’s mouth curves at the corners knowingly.

“Hey, Valdez.”

Leo almost jumps out of skin as Ethan sits next to him. “Ethan, hey!” he stammers. The flush on his cheeks deepens and not because of the sun or exercise.

“This is Nico,” he introduces, gesturing to Nico with his now empty water bottle. Ethan nods to him and gives a little wave.

“Here.” Ethan hands his water to Leo, noticing his empty bottle. Leo takes it with both hands.

“Oh! Uh, thanks, you didn’t need to…” he trails off, playing with the plastic wrapper.

“No problem,” Ethan smiles. “I was actually gonna ask if you wouldn’t mind helping pass out water.

“Yeah, of course!” Leo replies, immediately standing to join Ethan on his way to one of the many coolers.

 _I guess “hoe’s before bros” doesn’t apply to people you literally just met_ , Nico thinks. Although he’s just met Leo today, the boy was one of the few people here that he knew.

He’s contemplating actually meeting new people when he spies Jason Grace struggling with a large box of baseball gloves. Because he is a nice person (and not because he’s lonely), Nico gets up and walks over, grabbing the other side of the box.

“Thanks man,” Jason says, readjusting his hold so that they can both hold it comfortably. He leads them over to an area of the outfield uninhabited by others. They set the box down and Nico goes down with it because  _damn, that thing was heavy._

Jason begins taking the gloves out of the box and setting them on the grass in two lines. “So, Nico, why are you trying out this year? You didn’t play last year, right?”

Nico shrugs and stands up, helping Jason lay out the gloves. “Bianca isn’t here any more, so my dad- uh,  _encouraged_  me to try out. I did track last year. More my speed, if you pardon the pun.”

Jason frowns.

“You don’t want to play baseball?”

Nico shakes his head and turns away to get another armful of gloves.

“If you don’t want to play, you shouldn’t have to try out. Your dad can’t make you play, Nico,” he says taking the gloves from Nico to get his attention.

Nico lets out a heavy sigh and grabs the gloves again. They walk in between the lines of gloves. “I just don’t want to disappoint him. With Bianca gone, I’m the only kid he has and- you wouldn’t understand, OK?”

They reach the end of the line and Jason takes half of them to lay in the other line.

“Besides, track tryouts have passed, so baseball’s the only thing I’ve got. Might as well do my best.”

Jason doesn’t say anything. They finish setting out the gloves. Nico picks one up and imagines what it would be like actually playing on the team. He hasn’t even swung at a ball in years. He may not even make the team. But Nico di Angelo is nothing if not determined so he  _will_  try.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> watch me make this crack!ship happen okay i don;t care how ooc leo is I WILL MAMKE IT HAPPEN. also yeah that last line who even knows im not gonna lie to you, i genuinely just didn;t want to write anymore so I made that last paragraoh shit up (im soorry)

**Author's Note:**

> Where am i going with this? who the fuck knows actually. Jason;s ass looks good in baseball pants tho so that;s all that matters...
> 
> Please review:3
> 
> tumblr:  
> main blog - artem-ace.tumblr.com  
> pjo blog - demi-will-solace.tumblr.com


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